WW I POW's Prosthetic Arm Preserved

türkçe links to original Turkish article

(Milliyet Newspaper, 29 May 2017)


Ethem Yıldız holds his great grandfather's prosthetic arm.

Mehmet Çavuş of Sivas was a soldier at the Caucasus Front in eastern
Turkey during World War I when he lost his arm to shrapnel below the
elbow and was taken prisoner by the Russians.  While in a Russian
POW camp Çavuş was fitted with a prosthetic arm by a German doctor
and Çavuş's family has kept the arm in sacred trust all these years.

Ethem Yıldız (50), who lives in Ekincioğlu village in Sivas's Ulaş district,
explained that his great grandfather Mehmet Çavuş was captured by the
Russians in 1915 and spent seven years in a POW  camp.  Yıldız added that
"my great grandfather was taken prisoner at the Allahuekber Mountains
(site of the Battle of Sarıkamış in late 1914-early 1915).  A German doctor
made the prosthetic arm for him in POW camp.  When he returned to our
village 7 years later he had the arm and used it until he died in 1942.  My
uncle Adem kept the arm in trust.  I have assumed responsibility for its
preservation for the past 35 years and will do so until I die."

 
     Ulaş district is in central Sivas province.